


Playing the Cards You're Dealt

by FoxRafer



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-24
Updated: 2010-02-24
Packaged: 2017-10-29 18:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/322683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxRafer/pseuds/FoxRafer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for prompt 33 at <a href="http://slashtheimage.livejournal.com/"><b>slashtheimage</b></a>. Spoilers for <i>Journey's End</i>.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Playing the Cards You're Dealt

**Author's Note:**

> Written for prompt 33 at [**slashtheimage**](http://slashtheimage.livejournal.com/). Spoilers for _Journey's End_.

The latest report was thorough, efficient and routine. Donna was working, going out with her friends, living her life as she should be. Happy. But still Martha had called Wilf, needed to add his personal thoughts to her mental file.

He'd said sometimes Donna expressed a feeling of loss, like she'd just missed out on a big win. "She said it felt like being dealt a winning hand, but before she could claim the pot the cards would splinter and scatter across the felt. Sometimes the feeling's so strong she can almost see it, cards breaking apart into tiny fragments behind her eyes."

Martha replayed the words on a loop in her head as she remembered the woman she'd known, full of fire and wit, her tongue just as sharp as her heart was soft. An appealing mix of insecurity and confidence, and a smile that set Martha's world on fire. Donna was more clever than even she gave herself credit for, so a few stray thoughts of losing something were to be expected.

 _But nothing that would endanger her_ , Martha noted, _just confirms I have to keep away._

Martha chastised herself for the self pity. She knew if Donna saw her it might trigger memories that needed to stay buried. Still, she hated having to rely on any third party information, even from someone as close to Donna as Wilf. And she couldn't help mourning the loss of those memories on Donna's behalf, her friend and the woman she once thought could become much more.

It broke her heart to think of all that was taken from Donna, something she'd long sought and fought hard to find, something beautiful and life-changing. Martha hoped that in some small way Donna might also subconsciously miss what they could have become, what they had meant to each other, as brief and fleeting as it was.

Martha closed her eyes, momentarily bowed her head and sighed, then shook off the rising melancholy. Schooling her features, the medical officer firmly in place, she turned her attention back to more immediate and pressing projects. But she would do this ritual every month, not because she'd promised the Doctor. Martha knew he'd asked more as a distant precaution, a fail-safe as it were. No, she made this her duty because it was the only way she could maintain any contact, the only way she could be in Donna's life.


End file.
